Myth, we won't get a star for Martell Webster. He's on the trading block along with Channing Frye and I see that kid's point. You bring in Lowry and Roy can play his natural position and Blake becomes flexable during the offseason incase you need something to trade for picks. I really like Hakim Warrick but I think he's more suited for the small forward position than the power forward position. I'm not really sure how he would fit with Portland because he is like the reverse Travis Outlaw.

And to the trade thing I brought up, I was using New York just for an example. You would never want to trade there right now because you would get nothing but overrated, bad attitude players. I was thinking teams like Golden State (Stephen Jackson; he's really cleaned up his act no matter how thuggish he looks), Detroit (throw in Webster and picks, bring in Prince and fillers), Orlando (Hedo Turkoglu), Phoenix (Boris Diaw and Raja Bell), San Antonio (Kurt Thomas and fillers), Utah (Andrei Kirilenko), Washington (Caron Butler/Antwan Jamison)

Obviously some of these teams would probably not pull the trigger but I could see Utah, Orlando and Phoenix working something with Portland that involves Raef LaFrentz, but we'd probably have to throw in a young guy like Martell and some picks. I think we should do it now as there has never been a big free agent signing in the history of Portland and I don't think there ever will be one. The Portland market won't just explode after this season. Sacramento was an awesome team in the early 00's and their market still didn't grow and they still couldn't lure GREAT free agents. So whats the point of having all this money under the cap if you can't go out and sign a Chris Paul, Michael Redd, Carlos Boozer, and so on type player? If you trade right now for that player then you will be guaranteed to have that player next seasn as well. What would you rather see the Portland line up as next season?

Bayless
Roy
Redd
Aldridge
Oden

Or

Bayless
Roy
Outlaw
Aldridge
Oden

with a bunch of new bench guys like Eddie House, James Posey and Anthony Johnson?

*Disclaimer, I didn't check contracts prior to making this reply so don't get all over me if players listed are not free agents after the end of next season.

You guys have the best young team in the NBA, you will be destroying teams pretty soon. Lets hope the Blazers can keep these guys in these uniforms for years to come, because there is no limit to what they can accomplish.

You support the idea of Lowry? How do you plan on juggling the minutes among 5 Gs? We have Roy, Blake, Bayless, and Rudy. I don't want to add Lowry and take away the minutes from any of them.

G: Blake, Bayless, Sergio (could add Koponen)
G: Roy, Rudy

So yeah, I'd much rather keep Webster than bring in another PG.

As for the contract stuff. I think by adding Bayless, we need to be even more careful about the salary cap before. We had 3 guys that potentially could earn max dollars in the future. Bayless will at least get a large contract that we'll have to add to the mix as well. Trading LaFrentz means potentially not having the money in the future to keep our core together. Thats my fear now.

Btw, Butler/Jamison/Prince are the only guys I would want to trade Webster for out of the guys listed. Especially Prince. I think he would be perfect.

I see your point. I don't think Oden will get max unless he plays Shaq like in his first three years. Aldridge won't get max. Roy won't get max until probably his third extension (Rookie being his first, I could see his next contract about 4 years, 12 million a year then an extension half way through that contract to the max). Rudy won't get even close to 10 million a year and will probably get a 2-3 year deal in his second deal unless he somehow becomes the starting small forward. Not to mention, most the stars mentioned, their deals are up at the same time that the Blazer deals are so Outlaw and/or Webster (if still in Portland) would be fully developed by then and we can let the star walk or trade him a year prior or at the trade deadline for expirerers and draft picks.

I do see your point though. Also with bringing in Lowry you can keep Roy at shooting guard and have a better bench. You always say don't make the move unless it's an ungrade and last I checked, Sergio is an expirerer after this upcoming season and Lowry is a better all around player. Pick up Lowry and let Sergio walk.

Well, we are certainly on the same page of letting Sergio go away. Right now I don't see Sergio getting any minutes unless it is garbage time. No point bringing in Lowry to replace that. I say let Sergio go (trade if possible, let him walk if not). Then bring in Petteri Koponen. If he's an upgrade over Sergio, great. If not, well we don't have to give him minutes either.

My biggest point isn't that I'm strongly against Lowry. My point is don't trade Webster for PGs when there are no more minutes at the G positions. Thats how this whole Lowry thing began.

Same here, but Dumars (if he decides to trade) will be able to get a better deal elsewhere. Prince is the right age with so much playoff experience. This team has essentially none.

Other than that let's stay with what we have. With everyone making predications about NBA Championship in 2,3,4 years time the bottom line is the Blazers are .500 lottery pick team right now. Granted they have made great strides in the last two years (21 to 41 wins!), but they have three or four rookies (Oden, Bayless, Fernandez, and maybe Batum) who have never played a regular season game.

Agreed. Unless we can get Deron Williams like Jason Quick seems to think we may be able to do. Sounds like a pipe dream to me, but after one day of being able to sign an extension, Chris Paul has come to a deal and there is no word from Utah. I'm hoping Quick is right and Deron plans to test free agency.